“City of God“, the 1997 Brazilian novel from which the remarkable 2002 film of the same name was adapted, will become available as an English-language translation in September from Grove Press.

Authored by Paulo Lins, a former resident of the Rio de Janeiro neighbourhood of Cidade de Deus where his novel was set and where its title was derived, it delved into the seemingly permament poverty and ubiquitous violence that made up the lives of its residents, in particular the young.

Lins moved into the favela - or slum - as a seven-year-old and lived long enough to not only get out but also tell the tale, unlike many others who have been cut down by violent drug gangs or brutal police. As Alex Bellos notes in his Guardian review of the translated version by Alison Entrekin, more people were killed during the 1982 “war” between drug gangs in the area than in the official war going on at the same time over in the Falklands.

Bellos recommends the translated version, with the proviso that despite Entrekin’s “brilliant and worthwhile” effort at capturing the essence of the local vernacular it is inevitably a “black and white impression of Lins’s high-definition colour”; specific Brazilian references might also be lost on the reader. But the original details still shine through:

It is a shocking and gripping read. In between the rapes, murders and torture there are insights into Afro-Brazilian religions, transvestitism, prostitution and the value systems of those born at the bottom of the social scale. For a city reknowned for its natural beauty, City of God is a picture postcard of hell.

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